


A Crow's Perspective

by Jinchouhime



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26528911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinchouhime/pseuds/Jinchouhime
Summary: Uchiha Shisui dies and leaves his eye to Itachi. A story told from a crow's perspective.
Kudos: 9





	1. Silent regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d like to put a disclaimer before you start reading. Having dropped Naruto after the Pain arc in the anime and never read the Itachi Shinden novels, I’m just reading the wiki and going from there. I’ve taken some liberties with Shisui, kotoamatsukami and summons which I’ll go into detail at the end because it’s kinda spoilery.  
> I completed this fic a few months ago but I was unsatisfied with the writing so I decided to rewrite the whole thing. Hopefully this is better.

“Firstly, you have my thanks. You’ve averted civil war in Konoha and we’ve managed to maintain peace.”

“Yes.” Itachi’s voice lacks inflection. 

“However, I regret that there was no other way to resolve this.”

“My apologies.” 

“The one who should be apologising is me. You will be branded as a missing-nin who...”

The crow tunes him out. 

Apologies do not bring back the dead. 

Mitsue would return to haunt them if he knew his son would be killed before he lived to see his fourteenth birthday. Kagami would turn in his grave knowing that Danzo orchestrated the death of his clan. 

He caws loudly at Hiruzen. 

_This is what you let happen to your Kagami’s grandson, his clan!_

He doesn’t miss the way Hiruzen bows at him even as he flies away, but he can’t bring himself to care. The rules and hierarchy of humans meant nothing to him. Sarutobi Hiruzen lowering his head as Hokage or as himself meant little in the face of Shisui’s death. 

The stench of blood floods his senses and fear is etched into the ground. There’s anbu crawling everywhere, checking for survivors which do not exist. Itachi and the stranger were thorough, no one alive aside from Sasuke. From his usual perch, the crow can hear the little gasps as the anbu enter the houses. He knows what they found, little Haru had been born just eight weeks ago. 

The crow likes his peace and quiet so he’s pleasantly surprised to see that the anbu hadn’t come this far yet. Kagami, Mitsue, Mari and Shisui’s niches are well kept. The Uchiha’s shrine would soon fall into disarray, unkept in the time to come. He doubts Sasuke knows how to maintain a shrine. Little Sasuke who hadn’t yet learned how to conjure the blue fire used in the rituals. 

He leaves before the anbu arrive. The urns held their ashes, not them. The dead do not talk but neither does Sasuke. The questioning Hiruzen lets happen ticks him off and the whispers behind Sasuke’s back grates on his ears. It’s all a big show by Konoha for its citizens. 

Sasuke grieves in the shrine and dust collects on the floor. The anbu leave behind food and water but no comfort. Sasuke’s cries no longer wake the crow, what wakes him instead is Sasuke asking Shisui’s urn if Itachi really killed him. He’d love to scream that Danzo, the ungrateful bastard, killed Shisui but Sasuke was always under watch. It’s not like the boy could understand him anyway.

Eventually, the watches turn to periodic checks and when the crow meets Sasuke face to face for the first time since Shisui died, Sasuke’s eyes are dead and he’s unresponsive even as the crow caws at him. The crow can’t help but think Itachi is a fool, wanting to repent by having his younger brother kill him. And yet. Perhaps a drive for vengeance was better than this lifeless husk of a boy. He can see the moment Sasuke’s eyes focus and recognise the sharingan implanted in his left eye. Just as he’d seen Shisui do before, the crow takes hold of Sasuke’s mind. 

Sasuke’s mind is a mass of confusion. It’s plagued by nightmares, insecurities and overwhelmed with questions. The crow digs up the memory of Itachi to the forefront of Sasuke’s mind, reinforcing it with Kotoamatsukami. Sasuke slumps, passing out on the floor just as the crow finishes. There isn’t anything left to do but meet up with Itachi. Danzo would not risk killing the last Uchiha, especially one set on tying up his loose ends. The crow doesn’t look back on the shrine, the river or Konoha when he takes to the skies. 

The Uchiha hideout had a fine layer of dust on it. The monthly cleaning it usually had was overdue. Itachi was in the hall - the only room he’d bothered to clean - carving tablets. No time to burn the bodies the Uchiha way, leaving them to stain the streets of their home instead. Itachi barely stops his carving when the crow lands beside him. The metal of two Konoha headbands reflect the moonlight. 

Tonight would be long. 

There is not much to do except wait and the crow is careful to sit closer to Shisui’s unmarked headband. The only thing that marked his demise being part of the navy blue cloth stained black with his blood. 

“You used Shisui’s eye.” The words are a statement, though not accusatory. Itachi sighs when the crow doesn’t deny it, pinching between his eyes. 

He’s the same age as Shisui now, the crow realises. Shisui had been about to turn fourteen. Shisui had lost track of his own birthday but the crow knew, didn’t forget, would not forget. Just as he would not forget Shisui’s words at the river.

_Help...Itachi...help him...please…_

Shisui was too kind, asking for him to help Itachi even as his body failed him, dying in the cold water like that. An Uchiha, dying cold! The irony was as painfully apparent. Even Kagami hadn’t died cold. 

He stares at Itachi through Shisui’s eye, daring him to say more. Itachi opts to stare at anything other than the crow.

The night is long and only the sound of scraping wood fills the silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did a teeny tiny bit of math, figured Kagami would fit as Shisui’s grandfather. Then named Shisui’s father, Mitsue and his mother, Mari. There’s multiple meanings because of kanji but what I intended for them to represent is “Bright River” and “Truth/Genuine” respectively. Hopefully google did not lie to me.  
> According to the wiki, Kagami saved Danzo multiple times so Danzo going after Shisui’s life is just a double ouch.


	2. Impressions

The crow much prefers Itachi’s new partner. 

He may be blue, have jagged teeth and a sinister sword but that was something the crow had already gotten used to. At least, the yellow haired Iwa nin hadn’t been assigned to be his partner. Making birds blow up left much to be desired.

That being said, Hoshigaki Kisame always had the smell of fear following him. 

The crow gets used to it, notices the spikes whenever he’s handed information, and information brings them back to Konoha after five years.

The village is damaged. Debris and corpses fill the street. The crow heads for the Uchiha district first. The streets are still empty, as are the houses and the shrine is unkept, as he expected. The blood has been washed away but the air is stale in the district. It is untouched. There are no offerings in the shrine, no incense burning and a layer of dust covers everything. Uchiha Sasuke is not here.

Uchiha Sasuke stands out in the crowd. Not a particularly good thing considering he’s a shinobi, the crow thinks. At least his eyes are no longer dead. He was, however, walking to the teahouse Itachi and Kisame were hiding in. At that distance, there was no way Itachi hadn’t seen Sasuke and the crow was content to leave him to deal with his brother as he deemed fit. 

He’d meet up with them later. 

The flowers placed on Sarutobi Hiruzen’s grave, heralding him a hero, are maddening to the crow. Sarutobi Hiruzen was a selfish man, soft when it came to those dear to him. Allowing Danzo to create Root, letting Orochimaru go and the ensuing ripples these actions caused. The crow held no respect for the dead man. A man who was likely dead because he was too weak to finish off Orochimaru quickly. 

The crow claws at the flowers. What of his promise to protect Sasuke? Letting Shisui die, allowing the Uchiha name to be smeared, letting the Uchiha die and now  _ this _ . It is maddening. 

The crow leaves before any can discover him, rejoining Itachi and Kisame from the skies. 

He’s left outside the inn and content to bask in the sun when he spots Sasuke again. He’s frazzled, alone and the stench of fear rolling off him mirrors what the crow smelt five years ago. The crow lets him run from inn to inn, getting more frantic with each dud until finally, he reaches the correct inn. 

Uchiha Sasuke is so much weaker than either Shisui or Itachi had been at thirteen that the crow wonders how long Itachi would have to wait to be killed. At least, he isn’t running away, screaming and crying for his life. 

They flee the town when the toad sage makes himself known. Settling down in an Akatsuki hideout after ensuring they weren’t being followed. Kisame leaves to check the perimeter.

Itachi stares at the crow who shuts its right eye in response. 

Itachi’s left eye spins and the red tinged room bleeds to red plains and skies. 

Uchiha Itachi is desperate enough for answers to use his final Mangekyo for the day.

_ Using the eyes you got from Shisui on me is in bad taste _ .

Itachi flinches but that doesn’t stop him from asking the crow, “What did you do to Sasuke that day?”

The crow denies him an answer. Itachi can keep him in his Tsukuyomi for as long as he wishes. 

“Answer me.”

Silence.

“Why would Sasuke risk his life for someone else!”

It seems, the crow thinks, Uchiha Itachi cannot handle a world where his brother is dead, and a self-sacrificing shinobi ends up dead all too easily. 

_ That’s your brother’s own personality. Can’t you recognise that? I made him hate you, not question your lies and hid the memory of you crying. Did you want me to change who he was as well? Shisui would weep, seeing you like this.  _

“Don’t talk about Shisui.”

_ I raised him! Mitsue entrusted me with him! He decided to trust you! And here we are five years later. The Uchiha are dead and you are halfway to death’s door now  _ let me go _!  _

The world bleeds back to its usual tinge of red and the crow leaves the hideout. He doesn’t stray far from the duo. He’d promised Shisui he’d help Itachi and he’d do so. Nevermind that he thinks Itachi is an idiot. Nevermind that he thinks, maybe he shouldn’t have used Kotoamatsukami on Sasuke, maybe it would have been better for Sasuke to stay in the village rather than become hell bent on committing fratricide. 

_ Uncle. _

He opens an eye to see his niece perched beside him. He’s not sure how long he’s been perched on the branch. More worryingly, how he hadn’t sensed his niece’s arrival.

_ Kazue, Itachi summoned you? _

_ I’ve just returned from observing his brother! Konoha got a Senju back as their hokage and she healed him. Oh, Mama said to tell you to go home. I mean, she also said a lot of other things but... _

_ It’s okay, Kazue.  _ The crow says, his sister could even talk Yatagarasu-sama to silence. There was no need to make Kazue repeat her words.  _ Tell her I said hi and no.  _

_ She said you would say that and that I should remind you about your health and that Yatagarasu-sama would be disappointed in you. _

_ Nonsense. Go home and tell her to do something other than gossip in his ear! _

The crow nips at her as she disappears in a small puff of smoke.

_ See you, Uncle! _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kazue(和枝): meaning “harmony, peace" and "branch"  
> Thought the name would be fitting of Itachi’s summon.


	3. Warmer than a river in Autumn

Between visits from his sister’s children and Itachi kidnapping jinchuriki, the crow naps and dreams of simpler times. Like when Kagami was alive to guide Mitsue through the summoning jutsu and how Mitsue did the same for Shisui. Shisui had chosen him even though he’d aged considerably, having spent so much time in their world. 

Itachi’s crows are less of an intelligence network than glorified babysitters. The crow doesn’t pay much heed to the reports - they mainly consist of snake complaints though the crows lamented that Sasuke contracted with them. The most interesting news comes at the death of the snake’s summoner. Even better, Sasuke has sacrificed Manda and gotten rid of the yellow haired Iwa nin. 

Good things never happen alone and Itachi’s body has reached its limit. The medic gives him a month more to live and Itachi’s plan to die by his brother’s hands needs to be carried out now. 

At eleven, Itachi trusted the hokage to take care of his brother. At twenty-one, he knows better than to place his faith in others. 

The crow accompanies Itachi’s crow clone. He ignores the cries of his sister’s children telling him to return home. Going to sleep in the fox jinchuriki’s body is not hard. The fox’s chakra is not cold like a river in autumn. The flapping of wings grows soft as the crows scatter. 

Ten years after Shisui’s death, Itachi follows.

The crows lose their last contractor. 

The crow dreams of dead Uchihas, the warmth of the hearth and the cold autumn river stained by Shisui’s blood. What wakes him is the Mangekyo made from the death of his master. Shisui’s eye throbs and the crow claws its way out of the jinchuriki. His first sight after five months is Itachi’s Mangekyo and the first sounds he hears are the caws of his sister. 

_ Itachi is being controlled! _

The instruction implanted into his brain compels him to use Shisui’s eye. Eight years after using the Kotoamatsukami on Sasuke, the crow uses it on Itachi. Destroying the control by the clearly not dead snake sage before landing on the fox jinchuriki’s shoulder. 

_ An Uchiha being controlled by snakes!  _ He caws at his sister.

_ Shut it, brother! _

Itachi sets fire to the beast they are atop as his sister laughs at him causing him to take to the skies.

“Relax, I am no longer being controlled...” Itachi tells the fox jinchuuriki.

_ No thanks to me! _

_ Humility was never your strong suit, brother. I will never understand how you managed to raise Shisui to be such a nice boy.  _

_ We meet for the first time in ten years and you insult me. As if using your children as glorified pigeon carriers wasn’t bad enough. _

_ Well, my children had to meet their uncle somehow!  _

_ They were very annoying! _

Huge gusts of wind tear at the forest as his sister caws ‘ _ How dare you!’  _ at him

Itachi’s red Susanoo is next to appear as the siblings land on a tree. 

_ Yatagarasu-sama would beat you! My children are wonderful! Kazue is- _

_ Is this really the time to be praising your children? _

The ground is torn and absorbed into the small black sphere in the sky as the crows attempt to fly away from it.

_ Yes! _

The crow can see Nagato fading and knows his sister sees it too. 

_ Time’s up, sister. Your children were annoying but they broke up the monotony of life. Tell Yatagarasu-sama I give my thanks for allowing me to remain here.  _

The crow takes to the skies, circling Nagato’s second death before perching itself on Naruto’s shoulder. The fox jinchuuriki had been a pleasant host for five months. 

_ You should be telling Yatagarasu-sama that yourself. Give Kagami, Mitsue and Shisui my greetings when you see them.  _

The crow takes his last flight to land on Itachi’s arm.

_ It was good to see you again, sister. _

The flames of Amaterasu consume his body just as they consumed Shisui ten years ago. Shisui may have died cold but his body was burnt in the strongest flames the Uchiha could summon.

_ And you, brother. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last bit of this story takes place in episode 298 and 299 of the Shippuden anime. I skipped the actual fight and much of the dialogue, choosing to focus on the crow’s reactions instead. (And yes, I know I deviated slightly by putting in the crow's sister there but eh)
> 
> A couple things I’d like to mention; mainly that this story is a lot shorter than I’d imagined. I had thought I would put in many flashbacks about Shisui/Mitsue/Mari/Kagami, cameos of the crow’s family and even references to Shinto(as Kishimoto has named many Uchiha jutsu after) but it just didn’t seem to flow with the story. I lament the stuff I’ve looked up which sits unused.
> 
> About the crow/summons in general; my theory for this is that summons live longer lives in their respective summoning domains - attribute it to absorbing chakra or something idk. Extended periods of time outside their domain make them age closer to a normal animal’s rate. With Shisui being dead, the crow also cannot be resummoned if he dispells himself so he spends ten years following Itachi around to carry out Shisui’s last wishes. (In real life, carrion crows, common in rural parts of Japan, can live up to 20 years in captivity.) Basically, the crow is close to the end of his lifespan when Itachi burns him with Amaterasu. (The crow’s general sleepiness, hinted at from the previous chapter is the signs of him growing old.)
> 
> About Kotoamatsukami, the wiki basically states that it has a long cooldown with Hashirama’s cells being able to speed it up. Watching the actual episode and reading the wiki gives me different answers on how long this cooldown actually is (several decades vs a decade) My theory for this story would be that the physical condition of the eye’s holder plays a part as well, the crow’s older body (see above) basically meaning it would take longer and longer each time to recuperate enough to use the eye again. So, Shisui having likely used his eye prior to his death gives us about 2 years before the crow decides to use it on Sasuke and then it’s another 8 years before it uses it on Itachi. 
> 
> Overall, I hope you enjoyed the crow siblings banter and it wasn’t too contrived.


End file.
